Archive for August, 2008
Monday, August 4th, 2008
With the housing market as quiet as it is, sellers have to come up with all sorts of ways to get buyers interested.
The market is so saturated with unsold houses, that the few buyers who can afford to purchase properties are spoiled for choice.
How then do estate agents earn their salaries? How do overextended sellers get their houses sold in this market?
Seeff Properties have come up with a plan to test the market with. It has already been successfully tested in the Australian markets, but only time will tell if the South African market is ready to buy.
According to an agent, sellers sign a sole mandate with Seeff for 10 weeks. Seeff agrees to advertise as usual and set up an auction at the said residence. Auctions will be rolled out in batches and run on a weekly basis.
There is no reserve price on the auction, but the seller has the right to accept or reject the final offer.
Seeff are hoping that at least the auctions will bring buyers out in search of a bargain.
Posted in marketing | No Comments »
Monday, August 4th, 2008
Me thinks Jacob Zuma is missing a trick. Instead of focusing on ANC Youth League members older than himself, he should be working on his image out here in cyberspace.
Think of the PR he could get with a Facebook page? He could be adding the actual youth of South Africa as friends.
In the current US elections, some of the internet generation are a bit vary of John McCain. Not only because of politics and age, but also because of his lack of computer skills.
Has anyone in South Africa checked if JZ knows what e-mail is? I’m sure his predecessor knows and probably has a few aliases on Facebook.
I can picture the president seated in his library: dressed in smoking jacket, with pipe in hand, and laptop going.
Why else is Zuma not as popular online as he is in ANC circles
Posted in Facebook | No Comments »
Monday, August 4th, 2008
What strange times we live in. In a few days the Beijing Olympics will take place in a country where even the internet is supposedly highly regulated. (Makes me wonder who regulates those spam e-mails I keep getting from Chinese wholesalers.)
For the first time ever websites like Amnesty International are being unbanned all in time for the upcoming Olympics.
I’m not sure who is going to be hit by a culture shock most. Athletes participating in events, surrounded by smog, visitors or the Chinese themselves.
Can you imagine waking up in Beijing after years of having limited internet access and suddenly having to wonder whether you care if Cuil will be the new Google? As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, you get a Facebook account and suddenly realise that you are not your best friend’s only best friend.
If you can drag yourself away from the internet for 2 weeks, there will be images big and small, flashy and static to vie for your attention (and yuan). Ad campaigns from Games sponsors – Adidas, Coca Cola and all the usual suspects trading on the goodwill the Chinese have for all things Olympics.
The Chinese have no idea what they have let themselves in for.
The window of opportunity is two weeks. Two weeks of Facebook.
Two weeks to get the Chinese into Adidas gear. Two weeks to suspend the West’s support for the Tibetans.
Let the Games begin.
Posted in marketing | No Comments »
Friday, August 1st, 2008
I don’t get social bookmarking sites like de.lic.ious, Twitter, etc.
Facebook is sort of a necessary evil, but that’s all the socialising online for me.
In the good old days we visited our friends at home and had conversations about our interests over a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Now all they have to do is look at our bookmarks! What is left to talk about?
What’s even worse is that we can send little one-liners to those with a shorter attention span.
Actually give me the good old days of IRC when you logged on, chatted to strangers and friends all over the world. So what if you got the odd nutjob – at least once you logged off that was the end of it.
I liked the anonymity. You could be stupid and no one would know, unless you told them.
Now you have make sure you link to sites like Time Magazine, the New York Times and The Times – UK, so people don’t think you only surf E!Online and PerezHilon.com.
You have to at least least look well-rounded to your friends and acquaintances.
It’s all link here, link there. I have enough websites I actually like, but have no time to visit.
To be honest, I don’t even get business networking sites line LinkedIn and MyGenius. But that’s another story.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
